The present application relates to refurbishing a rotary wing aircraft main rotor blade.
Conventional rotary wing aircraft rotor blades include a spar that functions as the primary structural member of the rotor blade to react torsional, bending, shear, and centrifugal loads. Typically, a leading edge and trailing edge assembly envelop the spar to yield a desired airfoil contour. The spar typically extends along the length of the rotor blade and mounts at an inboard end to a cuff assembly that facilitates mounting to the rotor hub.
The spar is often manufactured of a high strength non-metallic composite material and/or high strength metallic material such as titanium alloy. The spar is a relatively expensive component that is often retrieved from a damaged or worn main rotor blade such that a remanufactured main rotor blade may thereby be assembled with the refurbished spar.
Spar retrieval is conventionally accomplished through heat decomposition and manual chiseling and scraping of main rotor blade components therefrom. Remnants of the main rotor blade components, oxidized coatings, adhesives and primer are conventionally stripped from the spar by dipping in a heated caustic solution then washing in water. These conventional high temperate processes are relatively labor intensive and may generate undesirable fumes.